It’s no wonder so many writers have a strong affinity to cats. Besides other things, cats display extreme impatience with the staff being a microsecond slow – and yet have self-discipline to watch a mousehole for a long, long time, with no movement other than occasional betraying switch of the tail. Much of any author’s time is spent in ‘necessary’ patience. Huge amounts of it are simply beyond an author’s control.
That said: it is actually a whole different world in Indy. At least with Indy you can open the doors for yourself, even without a butler. The waiting to see how you’re doing amounts to immediately with KDP anyway. The worst you have is waiting to see if first-readers loathe it, and waiting to see if you get decent reviews. Trad… trad was dreadful. Months and months (even years) for a response to a proposal or even a manuscript they’d bought – let alone the royalty report waiting game. I have now topped a new record for that from traditional publishing. Out of nowhere I suddenly got my first royalty report for CUTTLEFISH and STEAM-MOLE today. The first book came out in 2012 – Princely sums of $9.41 and $6.42. I will try not to let this amount of filthy lucre go to my head. According to the royalty report STEAM MOLE sold 4300 copies in hardcover (no paperback, expensive e-book), which is not too shabby, and I would have liked to know…
But, seriously enough, books are long-haul to write and hopefully to get return on: DRAGON’S RING and DOG AND DRAGON suddenly – from selling 2-3 copies a month, sold 15. Why? The books have been out for 14 years. Yes, I expect occasional readers to discover a new author – you can actually see that, when suddenly a single copy of everything you’ve written gets sold. Honestly, the business is a mystery to me. All I can say is I am glad it has taught me to wait, if not with anything but rampant irritation, at least while coping. Otherwise, I think the bureaucrats and mandated ‘private’ (but you have to have them, and can’t fire them) certified rubber-stampers in our building system would have driven me over the edge. In a process that has gone on for nearly a year, 6 months and one week ago, they told me I had completed their expensive paper-chase, everything was in order. After various nags I was promised it would be completed two months ago. Last month, ‘just a little more time’. This month – but only when I wrote to them – ‘we’re just waiting on this document from the deeds office.’ I got it in 20 minutes. “Now you should have it tomorrow, or at the latest Friday.” Friday afternoon, they just didn’t answer my query. Likewise, today. So: I expect the next hurdle has been erected, and they’re just not willing to say. I find myself in the odd position of hoping they are merely being glacially slow at getting around to it.
So: I’ve been in a position I had largely escaped from by going Indy. And I find myself coping – but struggling to write. It must happen to all writers. So: how do you isolate yourself from the real world (or even other writing) and work on the project in hand?
Mad Genius Club 
10 responses to “The waiting game”
Oh, you have so hit a nerve.
Decades ago we sank a small legacy into a down payment on an old non-working farm/orchard in central PA (and paid off the small mortgage while we had jobs). This was a settler’s farm (1812) that occupied (and gave the name to) the top of one of the hollows in the Alleghenies. At the time we were done re-buying some of its old remnants, it was 300 acres, mostly woods and fields. Over the years, as careers moved us all over the country, we would treat it as an occasional vacation cabin (ideal for hunting/fishing), and eventually my father-in-law moved in for the remainder of his life and had a lot of fun.
When the careers petered out (nobody wanted a 50-year-old tech exec) we stuck most of our stuff into storage and moved into the 1812 cabin with its modern-ish plumbing extension with the intent of subdividing it into 10-20 acre lots. The plan was to get most of it sold, then move to a final home while the last lots were disposed of. That’s the source of our retirement support. Reasonable plan, neh?
And then we got to really know the indifferent idiots of the Snyder Township local government. The lots along the road sold, but we had to plan the roadbuilding etc. for the internal lots. I won’t bore you all here with the impedimenta to the process, but it is ongoing and may yet prevent us from funding our retirement. At this point, the severe obstruction (and misapplication) of the administrative rules, intended for cul-de-sacs in city blocks in Philadelphia, are about to drive us to legal remedies.
One typical example: we are asked (forced to) account for restricted run-off on a proposed lot (from driveway, roof, etc.) when we are selling ground, not building on it ourselves. That, of course, can only be the buyer’s responsibility, and with 10-20 acres per lot, they have a lot of flexibility in choices.
It costs them nothing to prevent us from a responsible rural-area-friendly development process, while it may cost us our future. My blood pressure rises just writing this comment.
Sounds like you and Dave Freer could swap a few stories. 8-(
Oh, my friggin’ nerves. Not just the USA.
This is why -everybody- in Haldimand/Norfolk has a sea-container or two in their farmyard, and -nobody- has a new building. Because you can’t build so much as a little garage-sized pole barn around here due to taxes and the county.
If they fired ever SOB in the county building departments and started over, there would be an immense construction boom around here.
I heard as some length a few years ago the ‘fun’ a local farmer had trying to get a new pig barn built. Federal, provincial and county level interference and expense. My own experience with erecting a steel building was less ‘fun’ but still plenty of ‘fun’ for me, I only had to deal with the county. So when I needed extra space I got a nice factory built shed delivered. No foundation makes it a “trailer” for legal purposes, not a building.
But, thanks to the obscene price of lumber in Canada (which is the Land Of Trees don’t forget), my next shelter purchase will be a load of gravel and a sea container.
Wooden building, ~$50k plus huge hassle. Same size container, $3k, no hassle. Gee, what a hard decision.
‘It costs them nothing to prevent us…’ That in a nutshell is our situation and problem. And yes – our future they play with. Their actions could not be more pointless and futile – the regulation – like yours, totally inner-city based and completely inappropriate, and enormously expensive (we have to fly some ‘credentialled’ individual out for something that physically cannot happen (for our stormwater to affect anyone – we would enough rain on our roof to raise sea level by 90 feet.). And the TIME taken! we’re heading on 7 months since they said all the paperwork was in. 11 since we submitted. 3 and half years since the process began.
The project on hand IS my escape from the real world. I have space in the house that is just for work, and my family (aside from the cat) generally respects it unless there is something pressing. I also try to be sure that I get as much Day Job work done at Day Job as possible.
Ugh. Bureaucrats. (“Bureaucrats” might replace other rude words as a term of opprobrium. “You stupid bureaucratic ninny” has a certain ring to it.) I hope they are just slow-walking everything and not reloading the rock launcher.
I can hear Arthur now.
“I owe thee nothing, thou unshriven bureaucrat.”
The late Christopher Stasheff pointed out in at least one of his books that bureaucracy can be translated as “being ruled by desks.”
“how do you isolate yourself from the real world (or even other writing) and work on the project in hand?”
Unplug the internet. Very difficult to do, I admit. But when I do it, lots of writing comes out.
I saw Tucker Carlson on Joe Rogan’s YouTube show the other day. Mr. Carlson says he doesn’t use email or social media at all. Too toxic for him. He texts everything and makes phone calls. If a media guy is going that far to insulate himself, might be a good idea for me to cut back. ~:D
How do I isolate? Honestly I use the writing to escape from the world. I’m writing this in my ‘brother’s’ house, were we have come to help his widow take care of the closing out of his affairs. Scott and I knew and served with each other for over three decades. We were best man at each other’s weddings, helped each other through ugly divorces, we were, in every way that maters, brothers.
When the mental baggage of dealing with this is too much, I dive into writing the short story that I owe on the Fisher Universe to Three Ravens for an up coming anthology. It’s supposed to be light and humorous, so that is a great escape.
How do I isolate myself?
Work late at night or when Dad isn’t home. TV goes off. Internet is fine, sometimes music, but for the most part I need mostly peace and quiet. I’m could do fiction writing around other people-that’s what writer’s groups are for-but it’s hard when dealing with noise.
I can do a lot of stuff with noise-canceling headphones, but actual fiction writing takes quiet for me. Or my choice of noises.
(Fond noise that I discovered I enjoyed recently? Rain on skylights, especially if it’s rainy enough to wash the dirt off.)